Franklin Hotel

The Franklin Hotel was a four-story early 20th century apartment-style building with a symmetrical and uniform window layout on both street faces. The window layout, and what appears to be a hipped roof, alongside the pedimented central doorway at the front of the building indicate colonial revival style architecture. The main floor of the structure was above street level. The street level floor consisted of masonry, with the upper levels covered in clapboards. The building is unfortunately no longer existent and in 2025 what was once the Franklin Hotel is now a USPS parking lot. 

The Franklin Hotel was in operation by at least 1932, when records of it appear in local newspapers. By 1935, local newspapers advertised the fact that the hotel had received its liquor license, and the hotel had an active presence in the community that surrounded it. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties had meetings within the hotel in the 1930s, and the Boy Scouts were active in the hotel. During this time, the hotel seemed to be very politically active, hosting progressive and feminist causes, with the Women’s Regular Democratic Club installing newly elected officers at the hotel and the Ralph Oborne Progressive League meeting in one of the hotel’s rooms. 

This progressivism and feminism manifested in the management of the hotel as well, Alice D. Clyne - a widow of a World War I veteran - was the manager of the hotel’s restaurant for eight years until her death in 1942.  

World War II changed the community to which the Franklin Hotel appealed. Instead of hosting political parties, it began hosting dinners and dances for organizations devoted to veterans such as Gold Star Mothers and the Marine Corps League. By 1948, the hotel seems to have also been supportive of the Jewish population in the city, as it hosted Henry Albert, Vice-Commander of Jewish War Veterans. During this time, the Jamaica Lawyers club began hosting meetings at the hotel and prominent Jewish New York Supreme Court Justice E. Ivan Rubenstein was the guest of honor at a testimonial held by the Jamaica Lawyers’ Club at the Franklin Hotel. During this period the hotel advertised a thanksgiving turkey dinner at $1.75 a person. 

As the ’40s turned to the ’50s the hotel did little to change the community to which it advertised to. It continued hosting meetings and dinners for different progressive political causes. By 1971, the Franklin Hotel began advertising itself as “The Den,” attempting to appeal to an audience that was looking for a place to swing dance. This attempt to change the demographics of its customers appears to be unsuccessful, and in 1978 the Franklin Hotel sold to buyers who promptly turned the lot into a private parking lot used primarily by the USPS, which it remains as to this day.